High lead levels found among children in Georgia

High levels of lead have been found among children in Georgia in a nation-wide study from UNICEF.

Adjara, Guria, Samegrelo and upper Svaneti were the most lead-con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed regions, according to the study by the UN’s children’s agency.

On 23 April, UNICEF Georgia unveiled the findings of its study on lead preva­lence in children's blood.

According to the test results, 41% of the 1,578 children tested via venous blood samples had lead levels equal to or more than 5 micro­grammes per deciliter (µg/dL). The level of lead in blood among 16% from those matched or exceeded 10 µg/dL.

(UNICEF Georgia)

According to the summary of the study released by UNICEF Georgia, the results show a strong preva­lence of lead in the blood of children residing in Georgia’s western regions, with children in the Autonomous Republic of Adjara having the highest levels.

(UNICEF Georgia)

Lead is a naturally occurring toxic metal that con­cen­trates in blood and can cause poisoning. It is usually found in food, con­struc­tion materials and indus­tri­al paint, and can also be found in toys, furniture, ceramic dishware, and jewellery con­tain­ing leaded paint.

Chronic exposure to lead can result in damage to internal organs and the nervous system and can be espe­cial­ly harmful to pregnant women and to the nervous system and brain devel­op­ment of young children.

While there is no accepted ‘safe’ level of exposure for humans, 5 µg/dL is used by inter­na­tion­al health advocacy groups like the World Health Organ­i­sa­tion as a threshold at or above which inter­ven­tion is advised.

‘Important but not alarming’

Following the unveiling of the results, Health Minister Davit Sergeenko told the media that the results were 'important but not alarming’.

Amiran Gamkre­lidze, the Director of the Georgian National Centre for Disease Control and Public Health (NCDC), also advised against ‘panic’, stressing that 59% of the children tested did not have elevated levels of lead.

He said that 10 µg/dL rep­re­sent­ed the threshold for a ‘slightly elevated’ level.

Gamkre­lidze refused to provide possible reasons behind the elevated levels of lead among children tested in Georgia’s western regions, saying it was a matter for further studies. However, he indicated that areas that were formerly used as military bases were con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed, but did not provide further details.

The health ministry said they had already outlined medical protocol guide­lines for early iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and man­age­ment of lead exposure in children and had ‘planned an inter­ven­tion’ in 16 cases in which lead levels of a child exceeded 30 µg/dL.

The ministry said they planned to follow-up on the study results and identify the sources of con­t­a­m­i­na­tion in specific areas by re-taking blood samples and con­duct­ing an addi­tion­al study of the envi­ron­ment.

Sources of contamination not identified yet

In 2017, the New York City Depart­ment of Health and Mental Hygiene advised residents against consuming spices orig­i­nat­ed from Georgia. Theses included marigold, Svan salt, ajika powder, and khmeli suneli, among others.

Initially, the Georgian National Food Agency dismissed reports of con­t­a­m­i­nat­ed food products, but in February 2018, they decided to ban the sale of Georgian spices by indi­vid­ual entre­pre­neurs and obliged larger producers to seal and label their products.

The results unveiled on 23April were a part of a wider survey that gathered data on a number of factors con­cern­ing child welfare in Georgia.

Upon the request of Georgia’s Centre for Disease Control, UNICEF included blood tests of children in the survey for the first time in its global practice.

Unlike previous small scale studies, the MICS, which visited over 1,500 Georgian house­holds and collected blood samples from children aged between two and seven, is rep­re­sen­ta­tive enough for the author­i­ties to act on.

Georgia’s National Statistic Office, GeoStat, was respon­si­ble for carrying out the fieldwork for the survey, while the findings were the result of analysis conducted by the Italian National Institute of Health (ISS). According to UNICEF, the ISS used Induc­tive­ly Coupled Plasma Mass Spec­trom­e­try, ‘the most accurate method’ for testing lead levels.

The Estonian Ambas­sador to Georgia, Kai Kaarelson, hailed the study. In September 2018, the ambas­sador and other members of the diplo­mat­ic service announced they had dis­cov­ered ‘dangerous’ lead levels in their blood.

‘Children are the most vul­ner­a­ble group regarding this issue and of course, the next necessary step should be to identify the sources of the lead exposure’, Kaarelson told OC Media. ‘Only then effective steps can be taken to eradicate this problem.’

Possible factors

Nino Chkhobadze, co-chair of advocacy group the Greens Movement of Georgia, told OC Media that com­pre­hen­sive data was still not available to establish the sources of lead con­t­a­m­i­na­tion.

According to her, owing to recent media coverage, Georgians had become more informed about sources of lead exposure other than Georgian tra­di­tion­al spices.

She noted that the ‘western Georgia, espe­cial­ly a Black Sea coastline, was sig­nif­i­cant­ly polluted’ as a result of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear disaster.

‘Radioac­tive gases are char­ac­terised by a chain of radioac­tive decay ending up as stable isotopes. Lead is among those stable elements. A rise of lead exposure in the envi­ron­ment could be related to this’, Chkhobadze told OC Media.

According to her, acid rains cold also account for some lead con­t­a­m­i­na­tion.

As Chkhobadze explained, acid rain are the result of the inter­ac­tion of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, released into the atmos­phere through human activ­i­ties, with oxygen and water and other elements, creating acidic pol­lu­tants.